Work and Meditation… Not Opposite?

I have been challenged and nourished by Osho’s teaching for nearly a decade. I have especially appreciated his books Intelligence and Creativity. I find this excerpt below about a false dichotomy between work and rest challenging to my life experience and the kinds of support I offer clients and students. So many laborers of love long for a restoration of rhythm in their life. And, yes, I do find it helpful to encourage distinctions between work and rest in our efforts to craft sustainable lives. That said, I do find this teaching of Osho’s below compelling. I will be meditating on it further this Fall as I prepare for the next Biblical “self” care class called “A Living Sacrifice” (Tuesdays in October).

What are your thoughts?

Click the pictures below to visit Osho’s website.

Pune, India Osho Meditation Resort

“People need to change the attitude that exists about work, particularly in the Western mind. Meditation should be part of the work, not separate from it.

“Work and relaxation are not contradictory. In fact, the more you put yourself into work the deeper you can go into relaxation. So both are important. The harder you work the deeper you can relax. Work is valuable. It will bring humbleness and silence. People should feel that their work is something very special, and that whatever work they do is respectable.”

“The emphasis should be on full-time work. 6 hours a day is perfectly okay. Work is part of the whole program – when you work, work as if it were a group therapy. Call it “work meditation”. If you really want to meditate and get into yourself, at least 6 hours work is a necessity – is part of the whole change in your energy. It is scientific. For 6 hours you should forget everything else – forget the whole world, forget your problems – whatever work it is, be total in it. Then something is possible.”

On another occasion Osho explains his radical approach:

“It is a very western idea of having a separation between the work and enjoyment; it is a very Christian idea – that God worked for 6 days and on the seventh he rested. But my vision is totally against this whole idea from the past. I am giving you a totally new vision, a totally new man who is not split into work and rest. For me relaxation and work are not opposite. I am not at all in favor of people feeling they work too hard and they need a rest or a break to relax and that they have to go somewhere away, away from the work. My vision is that you enjoy totally whatever you are doing, I am not against swimming or against fresh air, or against lakes. It is the split that I am against, the separation that this is work and this is enjoyment, the idea that I need to go to the lake for a break, to relax, to get away from the work.”